Invisible Threads
by Mizu Yuri-chan
Summary: Two strangers with their lives laid out clearly before them receive a call from fate.


Disclaimer: Poor little me will never own Bleach. Tear tear. But I do own this plot!

Normal text is in Hinamori's point of view

Italics are in Hitsugaya's point of view.

Soul mate. Every girl hopes to find, her soul mate, other half, the one connected to her by the steely thread of fate. As I gazed into the eyes of the man knelt before me, I wondered if he really was my soul mate. I felt flustered, confused. Our relationship had been building up to this moment since he asked me out in high school. He overcame my family's disagreement about our unbalanced social standings. He had just been a middle class student and now he was working in a big corporation. I had been a princess cuddled in the lap of money. For him, I searched for a simple life; from my castle to a fairly adequate one-bedroom apartment. I wanted to make it on my own. Our story was the meat of clichés, the stuff of dramas. But then somehow we veered off the path of a happily ever after because for some reason 8 years later, my hand hesitated over the ring.

_'Love?' I scoffed at the thought. Another fairytale-struck princess wanna-be sat across the marble table as she looked at me with adoring eyes. _

_I smiled back; a warm, practiced smile. Love is a delusion that people placed themselves under in order to justify their actions, in order to improve the quality of their lives by an inch. I did not need love. Marriage is a contract between two people created so that each can reap some kind of benefit from the other. This girl would just become a liability with her shyness and incompetence. I needed a partner, a hostess who would befit the position as a CEO's wife. _

_It's time to end this._

_Another heart broke that night._

I said yes. I stared sightlessly at the ceiling tiles in my bedroom. It had been a week since he proposed. The idea has not settled yet. Maybe it was too sudden. I should be happy.

But I can't lie to myself.

All I can hope for is that I will be happy.

All I wish for is that this strange hesitation came from nerves.

_"You'll be meeting with the EliXir Diamonds Corp's heiress next week for lunch, Toushiro. This time, please consider her carefully. Don't disqualify her just because of some minor fault again," my mother pled. _

_"You know what kind of world we live in mother. I need someone who will be able to stand on her own two feet. Fight her own battles. Money is something that I have. I don't need it from my future partner. But character is something that I can't teach. Class is something that I can't give. The girl needs to come with certain qualities already installed. They have to be…"_

_She had that look on her face again as she listened to me speak. The look that said just when did her son became so cold, so like his father. _

_The answer is when her son found out the difference between fantasy and reality._

Yesterday night I had a dream. It was my wedding day. My semi-opaque veil covered my face as I slowly glided across the aisle towards that _man._

I could only see the hazy outline of him. But even from my limited view, and with his back turned to me, I noticed that his hair was a bit longer than what I was used to. He seemed a bit taller. A lot of small stuff was out of place.

But as I reflected on myself in the dream I couldn't remember an ounce of nervousness at these observations. Only a sense of contentment enveloped my dream self. My heels stilled as I reached the final step up the alter stairs. A hand reached for mine. I took it without question, without hesitation, without any of the hindrances plaguing me right now. I took the hand.

It was warm, strong, and the slight squeeze it gave mine held a promise of forever more than anything else.

But it did not feel like my fiance's hand.

Should I be scared?

I woke up.

6 month later

_She met my qualifications. Throughout our interactions I mentally checked off each stipulation. Next step was to tell my secretary to order a ring. There was no hesitation in such situations. We matched._

How was this possible? I wanted to laugh. I wanted to cry and curse and kill him for putting me through this.

But I held it all back as I smiled at him, my ex-fiancé, confidently, in that I will be better off without you manner as I collected my clothes, my utensils, my memories, from his condo.

My family prestige couldn't hold him back. My success at becoming a director in my family's company did not have enough enticement. Most importantly, our 8 year relationship was thrown away like a used Kleenex. Tears prickled my eyes as I walked out. I left behind him… and his beautiful girlfriend, the one he said that he couldn't live without. His soulmate.

I wanted to laugh at the irony of the situation. I was the one that had the doubts. I was the one who hesitated over the ring. I was the one who wished for a soulmate. I was the one who everybody thought would soon get tired of a guy so below my station in life.

Somehow I became the one who was cast away.

Laugh. The world was laughing at me. I wanted to leave everything behind.

I walked.

I jogged.

I ran.

But I couldn't get away.

_My secretary was having an affair with his secretary. How did I know this? _

_He stopped talking about his fiancée._

_She appeared more often than needed. (No one can drink so much coffee in one day without exploding)_

_A usually tidy man came out ruffled and red from his office._

_He smelled like her perfume._

_Why did I know this?_

_It was amusing to see the two scurrying around, trying to find a moment of intimacy. _

_It is good to know anything about your worker that might affect their performance. _

_The next time I catch lipstick on my paper, they will both be fired. _

_All I wander about now is how dumb that fiancée of his must be since he still had a ring on his finger. This meant that she hasn't broken things off yet. I looked at the engagement ring on my finger. _

_What an empty promise. _

_Because Hitori is smart (one of my requirements), she knew this too._

321-987-1432.

It ringed once. It ringed twice.

"Hello. Hitsugaya Toushiro. How may I help you?"

I started sobbing;

Uncontrollably,

Unendingly,

As if my heart was wrung out and dried.

I did not know this Hitsugaya-san. But I needed someone to listen. Someone I would never meet; the only kind of person that I would ever show this side of myself to.

This was so embarrassing.

But I couldn't stop crying.

_I was running late for my date when my phone ran. I stopped to pick it up since only a scant number of family members and a few important clients knew my condo's private phone number. It had to be important. _

_"Hello. Hitsugaya Toushiro. How may I help you?" _

_Someone started crying._

_"Hello? Who is this?" _

_The sobs continued. _

_"If you don't start speaking I'm going to hang up!"_

_I almost growled in annoyance. This had to be some practical joke someone was playing on me. I felt a headache forming as I moved my finger to the off button. _

_But then I heard it._

_It echoed throughout my body._

_"Help me. Hold me. Save me." _

_I paused. _

_My heart stopped for one beat. Time and space seemed to pause with it._

_I was suddenly gripped by an unexplainable need to tell this strager that it was going to be okay. I whispered this in my mind as I closed my eyes and listened to a girl cry._

"It's going to be alright."

That's what I heard.

Or rather, that's what I felt. The stranger was telling me that it was going to be alright. I don't believe that I heard his voice. But I knew that this was what the stranger was conveying to me.

My sobs slowed and eventually turned melted into hiccups and then nothing.

The line went quiet.

The silence stretched.

I spoke for the first time.

"Thank you"

I hang up, walked out of the pay-phone booth and smiled up at the starry night.

Thank you

A/N: Hey peeps! This is just a random idea I had! I don't know what I want to do with it yet. Maybe I'll just leave it like this and leave the readers to imagine what might happen between my favorite couple or I'll make this into a two-shot or three-shot. It's your choice!


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